Proto Media Primer

Paul Ryan, Raindance Corporation

1970 | 00:14:42 | United States | English | B&W | Mono | 4:3 | Video

Collection: Single Titles

As one of the early media collectives, Raindance Corporation celebrated an eclectic use of the portapak by taping everything from man-in-the-street interviews to concerts and demonstrations. Intended to serve as a cultural data bank, their media primers provide an impressionistic smorgasbord of late '60s and early '70s American society. In this primer edited by Paul Ryan, Abbie Hoffman is interviewed shortly before the verdict of the Chicago 7 trial is delivered. Hoffman describes some of the politicized media theater that punctuated the trial for conspiracy to incite a riot of the demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic Presidential Nominating Convention. The tape concludes with a duel between Raindance's portapak and a surveillance camera in a Safeway supermarket.

This title is only available on Surveying the First Decade: Volume 2.